Great Gardening Advice

Rachael gave me some really good gardening advice, and she said I could share it with all of you! I am going to use it as my gardening guide!

Cool weather veggies that you might want to plant now (and I emphasize NOW) and are easy to grow, but will stop performing when it gets too hot are: ...Plus I wrote what is easiest (and cheapest) to grow them from- starters from the store or seeds.

Celery- buy as starters (they may not be out yet??? and I think you'll have to buy from a nursery as opposed to Lowes or Home Depot)

Carrots- plant seeds, plus they can stay in the ground for a while so you can plant them all right now verses staggering them by two weeks.

radishes- plant as seeds, stagger by two weeks (plant some now and some in two weeks for a full crop)

lettuce- plant as seeds, stagger if you want too

onions, if planting big onions plant starters, if you are planting spring onions plant as seeds. Also, onions can keep some bugs out of your garden so I like to plant them around the edges in some spots

spinach, start as seeds, once it gets too hot they will die back but will come back in the fall and can grow must of the winter

peas, grow from seeds, some are bushes and some are vining so pay attention

Some good hot weather ones are:

tomatoes- definitely plant as starters. I also like to plant at least one cherry tomato plant because my kids love to pick the tomatoes and eat them as they play outside.

beans- grow from seed, most variety sold are pole beans so use a trellis or poles to support them

watermelon- grow from seed, as you know, plant on mounds

pumpkin- grow from seed, as you know, plant on mounds

squash- grow from seed, as you know, plant on mounds

bell peppers- plant from starters

strawberries- plant from starters, they like their own place so you can have a patch and treat them like perrenials or most commercial growers treat them like annuals- read up on them, they can be fussy

corn- grow from seed

cucumbers- grow from seed, as you know, plant on mounds, and buy the burpless ones because they are less bitter.

Don't plant anything that attracts squash beetles until later. They are nasty! That means no, squash, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkins and other things that are low lying until AFTER June 15th. That is when the threat of infestation should be minimal. Luckily, these plants are all fast growers and it will not matter that you don't have them in the ground before. No time lost.

Kristie